RAID-0 Using 2 * WD 80GB (8MB Special Edition)

[hariom]

Guys

I am planning to setup a RAID-0 for my system partition in (Windows 2000 Pro)

I got my WD 80GB (8MB Special Ed.) from Newegg. I ordered this as Dell screwed up my order last week. Finally Dell also is shipping the drive..I already had the Dell order canceled but the idea of RAID-0 using 2 WD 8 MB special edition is too tempting.

I will be using cluster size of 64K (as I read some where its better to have this same as NTFS cluster size) Some reviews says that 16K is the optimum size.

My question is, Do I need to use the complete 80 GB for RAID-0 Array or I can use part of this to create RAID-0 for my system partition. I want to use 30GB (15 GB each from both drives) for my RAID-0 Array. I want to use the remaining space from both drives as seperate volumes (under windows 2000). Can this be done? How will the remaining part (65GB) of the drives seen by windows 2000 once I create RAID-0 array (15 GB each) If the RAID-0 stripe set breaks/crashes, I know I will loose all data there, but will the data on the remaining partition survive. Any idea??

Finally will I see any improvements?

HariOm
--------------------------------
ABIT KR7A-RAID
AMD Athlon XP1700+
512 MB DDR High Performance Mushkin
2 * Western Digital 80GB (8 MB Special Edition)
ATI RADEON 8500 128MB DDR
Liteon 16x DVD
IOMagic 324X CDRW
Creative SoundBlaster PCI128
Pinnacle PCTV Pro
Adaptec duo USB/Firewire Combo

[Midknyte]

If you are doing hardware raid, you must use the entire drives.

[hariom]

Yes I am doing hardware RAID, but I dont want to use the entire drives.

In this case shud I use software RAID. I read some where that software RAID performance is comparable to hardware RAID as todays CPU's have enough power to handle that.

But, Can I have the windows 2000 system/boot partition on RAID-0. Need to find out..

--Hari m

[Midknyte]

first, you would need win2k server. Pro doesn't do the software raid.

software raid is always slower than hardware raid. if you have hardware raid, i would take advantage of that.

No, you cannot have your system partition on RAID0 in win2k software RAID. it can only be on a single or mirrored partition. you can split drives in software raid, so that you have a mirrored partition for your system files, and the other parts for data.

[hariom]

I do have hardware RAID (Highpoint on my Mobo) But I can not take the risk of loosing data partition by putting it on RAID-0

So, what is the best way to go. Shud I use hardware mirroring...??

--Hari m

[AllGamer]

There's no way a Software RAID can be faster than a Hardware RAID, where did you get that information???

Software RAID shall only be the last resolt for anything like that.

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by hariom
I do have hardware RAID (Highpoint on my Mobo) But I can not take the risk of loosing data partition by putting it on RAID-0

So, what is the best way to go. Shud I use hardware mirroring...??

--Hari m

if you want protection use RAID 1 or RAID 0 if you are just after more space.

but either way, whenever you start a RAID setup, you'll lose everything on your current drive.

so you better make sure you've backedup everything you need, before starting RAID setup, since you go into the RAID controller BIOS, and nukes everything in there, to create a new drive.

[Midknyte]

If you want to have duplicate drives, then RAID1 is the way to go. you would end up with 1/2 the space of the total drives, since you are making 2 copies of the same drive. so if you have 2 80s, you end up with only 80GB. The performance won't be as fast as RAID0, but at least you'll have a backup in case 1 drive dies on you. I use mirroring in my servers and it has saved me a lot of time.

[otheos]

I am planning to setup a RAID-0 for my system partition in (Windows 2000 Pro)

Why? Do you understand what RAID0 offers? Can you see anything common between its advantages and using it for running the OS off of it, cause it looks to me like eating soup with a fork.

My question is, Do I need to use the complete 80 GB for RAID-0 Array or I can use part of this to create RAID-0 for my system partition

No, if you use the onboard HPT controller you can only use the physical disks.

Yes I am doing hardware RAID

The HPT controller on the motherboard is not a hardware RAID controller. It's just a standard IDE2PCI bridge with a bios to boot from and software (drivers) that offload the RAID functions to the CPU.

first, you would need win2k server. Pro doesn't do the software raid.

It does RAID0 and RAID1, but you can't boot from them.

software raid is always slower than hardware raid

Depends on the OS and the controller. For HPT/Promise/CMD (ok not actually hardware but I follow the misconception here) software RAID (i.e OS driven) is always faster (and besides it's more flexible as you can use partitions not complete physical drives). When it comes to true hardware controllers, again depending on the OS and the drivers sometimes the implementation is so poor that again software RAID is faster. See for example the Adaptec 2400A in linux or W98. Still though software RAID has come a long way and with today's powerfull systems it is mature enough to take on expensive hardware controllers and actually come very close in performance. I am mostly talking about linux though as this is where most of the software RAID development has taken place.

[PaRaNoiD]

You have 4 RAID options.

RAID 0:Uses Data Striping,spreading out blocks of each file across multiple drives to improve performance.

RAID 1isk Mirroring.Data is written across two duplicate drives simultaneously and if one drive should fail or crash the system will switch across to the other drive with any loss of data.Doing so provides a Fault Tolerance got the system.

RAID 3:Simrlar to RAID 0 but requires a additional drive to be dedicated for Error Correction Information which provides both Fault Tolerance and improved performance.

RAID 5:Also provides Data Striping but requires at lease 3 drives.The main difference between RAID 3 and RAID 5 is that the Error Correction Information is written onto all drives which offers even better Fault Tolerance as well as good performance.

You need to know what you want to use.If you just want increased performance go RAID 0 but if your looking for good protection then go RAID 1.

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by otheos
No, if you use the onboard HPT controller you can only use the physical disks.

Hmmm...I'm using the same two WDs on a Promise "lite" RAID controller as RAID 0 and have 6 partitions so far. If I didn't partition, I could not use FAT32 because there's a 32GB limit in WinXP for FAT32. I would have one 160GB NTFS drive.

[otheos]

Yes, once the array is built, you then end up with one big drive. You have to partition/format it afterwards but all partitions will of course lie on the array. If you lose the array (something these winraid chips are known to fancy doing) all your partitions are gone

[BipolarBill]

Is that right? So what are you smiling about? LOL!

[otheos]

I smile cause I don't use it

[BipolarBill]